Lord Nicholas Windsor, who is the youngest child of the Duke of Kent, describes his "visceral" opposition to the termination of pregnancies and compares the destruction of embryos to "eugenics".

In a critique of the 1967 Abortion Act in The Daily Telegraph, he states that "the cost is too high because the cost is paid in innocent life."

Describing the origins of his opposition, he writes: "It hit me in the stomach that terminating a pregnancy equalled none other than the destruction of a human being.

"It knocked the wind out of me the first time, as it does every single time I think about it."

Lord Nicholas Windsor and Lord Alton of Liverpool today claim a that "subversive" campaign to establish abortion as an international human right is being mounted to "bully" countries into giving all women the right to the procedure.